Rumor Has It
by truephan
Summary: Before PP. A truthful rumor spells trouble. The REAL story on how Danny got the ability to replicate!
1. Chapter 1 Getting Started

**A/N: Well, here is another little story that's similar to the style that I love: the DP series style! Underneath, y'all know, I love action and quirkly humor. And I came up with this little story in an attempt to hone that style. My favorite kind of comedy is wit, followed by comedy of errors, which is what I based this story on ( and I actually wrote this WAY before PP was aired and WAY before "His Own Worst Enemy". In fact, I pushed it aside to post HOWE first, and don't want to hurt its feelings any longer!). But I realize from this story that writing strictly comedy, for me, IS SO HARD! But I still made a stab at it, and I don't think I fell too hard face-first into that pie… And a big thanks for Angelus-alvus once again for helping me come up with the summary. Thanks for your e-ear, my friend! Remember: computer to write with: $800.00; posting on FF: free: Your input—as always: priceless!**

**...Now, a little background: We've already seen in "Torrent of Terror" that Danny can now replicate himself. But, didn't ya ever wonder how Danny got the ability to duplicate himself in the FIRST place and when it actually happened? Well, this story has the exclusive scoop, the whole terrifying truth! And it happened, of course, WAY before TT but after my own stories, "Bewerewulfed", "Brace Yourself" and "A MiniReview". (And don't worry if you haven't read those yet. Danny got his wulf claw power in "Bewerewulfed" and his supersonic speed in "Brace Yourself". And everyone got crammed and then uncrammed in "A MiniReview". If you want to find out how all that happened, be my guest and take a peek at them! …But whenever you get confused with an obscure reference to those stories in this story, just accept the referred fact as "true"!) **

**So, read on—if you dare—and, of course, ENJOY! **

Rumor Has It

(The Terrifying Truth!)

Prologue

It was another boring day for the students and another irritating day for the teachers at Casper High. But in the teachers' lounge, one teacher in particular was neither bored nor irritated at the moment, even though his exaggerated enthusiasm was beginning to needle those listening to him.

"Can you believe it? She picked our school over all the rest!" Mr. Lancer blurted out, so excited that he was having a hard time catching his breath.

Mr. Falluca, the math teacher, sighed, and rolled his eyes. Thinking that the "Chinese Water Torture" would be ticklish compared to what Mr. Lancer was raving about, the suffering math teacher tried to refocus his line of vision away from his corpulent cohort. But then he groaned when he spied the huge sign announcing the upcoming Mardi Gras Masquerade Dance. More torture. It was his turn to chaperone that one, and that reminder, as well as Mr. Lancer's blathering, was getting the best of him. Finally, Mr. Falluca halfheartedly remarked, "But do you think the kids will be as excited?"

Slightly perturbed at his colleague's lack of oomph over his idea, Mr. Lancer answered, "How could they not be? She's a goddess, a guru…"

"She's all that?" Mr. Falluca interrupted with an incredulous scowl.

Everyone else in the room tried to huddle as far from the scene as they could. They couldn't believe how brave Mr. Falluca really must be.

Mr. Lancer breathlessly replied, "That and more! She will simply mesmerize them!"

Still unconvinced and fighting his apathy, Mr. Falluca remarked, "But the kids don't even know who she is!"

"Of course they do!" Mr. Lancer insisted, "Watching the cooking channel is—what do the kids say? oh, that's right: 'where it was'—and has got to be the epitome of the educational experience! The way she moves when she's cutting those onions...The way she throws those seasonings in her pot...Ahhh! And then that honey voice of hers! Every word that she utters—and especially when she is telling us her secrets—just drips from her lips with delicately sweet and delectable finesse." He stopped a moment to sigh and then added, "Think of the culinary horizons she can lay at our students' feet!"

The math teacher actually began to feel sick. Finally, he rolled his eyes again and slowly responded, "Well, I don't know…"

Mr. Lancer frowned in frustration and said, "It's our duty, Frank! Besides, if we refuse her, she will never offer again!"

Exasperation finally flowing from his mouth, Mr. Falluca uttered, "But Fanny Dempton is only a cook!"

Meanwhile, Paulina and Starr, two of the most meddlesome and popular girls in the school, were passing by the teachers' lounge when they couldn't help but hear the barely audible one-sided conversation that was emanating from the room. They, of course, stopped and attentively eavesdropped just as they sort of heard Mr. Falluca's last muttering. But unfortunately for the snoopy girls, the rest of the conversation was muffled.

Mr. Lancer was mortified at Mr. Falluca's last comment. "Fanny Dempton's a chef!" He gasped. "And her pot roast is a joy to every taste bud! In fact, that's her specialty: "Pot Roast Joy". And she has offered to serve it at the upcoming Mardi Gras masquerade dance! Isn't that just delicious?" Reflexively rubbing his stomach with the thought, Mr. Lancer sighed with anticipated satisfaction.

But Mr. Falluca just groaned; and seeing that his fellow teacher was still unconvinced, Mr. Lancer began his whole tirade all over again.

In the meantime, Paulina and Starr, straining to hear, excitedly whispered between themselves.

"Who or what are they talking about?" Starr hoarsely whispered.

Paulina, still straining to hear, quietly answered, "I'm not sure, but I think Mr. Falluca said something about Danny Fenton's being a…book?"

Starr skewed up her face in confused doubt. "What? That doesn't make sense! Anyhow, who cares anyway? But I thought they were talking about a boy named Marty Draw and his square pants, or was that dishes?"

"UGH! No, don't tell me that! They can't mean that stupid sponge? That _definitely_ doesn't make sense; and...they can't be that dumb! We have to listen some more!" Pauline quietly hissed, as they pressed their ears to the door.

Starr then blurted out, "Oh, I know! They're talking about a boy name 'Roast'!"

"That can't be right!" Paulina objected.

Hearing only an occasional word, Starr complained, "Boy, are they going on and on!"

Which, of course the teachers were, especially since Mr. Lancer was sounding more and more like a broken CD. And Mr. Falluca was sounding more and more exasperated.

Suddenly, Paulina gasped as the idea hit her. "That's it! They said that Danny Fenton is the Pot Ghost Boy!"

Chapter 1—Getting Started

Danny, Sam and Tucker had just turned the corner when they saw Paulina and Starr actually kneeling with their ears hugging the teachers' lounge door. As they drew nearer, it was obvious that the two girls were so totally engrossed and were so excited with what they were doing that they didn't see or hear the three friends approach.

Irritated at the scene, Sam blurted out, "People can always sink lower!"

Her comment startled the two girls and they jumped in response and turned toward the voice that surprised them.

But Paulina couldn't believe it was Danny who was looking at her instead of the girl whose voice she thought she heard. Her jolted expression then melted immediately into a romantic one and she batted her eyes, stood up—still batting her eyes, of course— and stepped toward him. Giggling and shoving Sam rudely aside, she snuggled up to him, while Starr did the same to Tucker, who was more than happy about it and snuggled back. Danny, however, stood nervously, both pleased and scared stiff. After all, it _was _Paulina snuggling.

Gushing with her flirty giggle, Paulina emoted, "Oh, hello, there, Danny! I didn't see you! But then again, you can make that possible, right?"

"Ah, ah, what did you say?" He stammered nervously, truthfully bewildered.

Paulina's giggle continued, but its tone changed to that of an "in-the-know-about-your-secret" kind of laugh. "Oh, never mind, you! You don't have to be that clever with me!"

But before Danny could say anything else, Paulina pushed him playfully away and turned to her satillite. "C'mon, Starr! Let's get the juice started!"

Much to Tucker's chagrin, Starr immediately shoved Tucker rudefully away and followed her friend.

As she watched in disgust as Paulina and Starr left, Sam growled, "What's wrong with **them**?"

Tucker, reacting dreamily to the encounter, replied, "I don't know, but I hope they keep making that mistake!"

Danny, however, shrugged it off and said, "Well, girls can be so fickle, you know."

"Ignoring that, for now," Sam frowned, her voice still having an edge to it.

Noticing that about Sam, Tucker nervously blurted out, "Let's not go there…." And pointing to Mr. Lancer's classroom, added, "….but let's go **there!**"

And all three entered the classroom.


	2. Chapter 2 The Trap is Set

**A/N: Thank you for your kind reviews, y'all are SO wonderful! Some really fun stuff, right? And it's going to be a fun ride, so I hope you stick with me! Now here is Chapter 2. Enjoy!**

Rumor Has It –Chapter 2—The Trap is Set

As Danny, Sam and Tucker entered Mr. Lancer's classroom, they quickly noticed the rather large amount of notes and whispers that were flying around the room. They were far more than the usual that they expected in the normal course of the day. Sam paid special attention to the whispers and immediately her face skewed up with worry. There was obviously something very different about this buzz in the room. Not only were the whispers louder than any of the bees humming in their hive, but they were also accompanied by various stares and finger-pointing aimed at Danny. And, of course, there was that unusual rain of notes.

Mr. Lancer, however, seemed oblivious to it all and stood with his back to the class, writing on the blackboard.

The three friends sat down, and frowning with annoyance, brushed away any note that landed on their desks.

Mr. Lancer finally turned around and raised his voice in response to the airborne paper and chatter. "OK, people! Let's quiet down! We have work to do and have no time for rumors!"

After the slight decrease in the room activity, a girl student raised her hand and said, "But Mr. Lancer! Doesn't great literature often use rumors to give their story some excitement?"

Mr. Lancer cleared his throat in slight embarrassment over her legitimate point and remarked, "Well, yes, Daphne, you're right! But you're referring to ingenious conventional techniques, not cheap hearsay fodder!"

The class blankly blinked at his comment, completely at a lost of what he just said.

Then being a little more direct, he continued, "Now, I'm going to come right out and say it! I don't want to hear anything more about Mr. Fenton's being the Ghost Boy!" He chuckled a little and added, "That thought is so improbable!" Then he cleared his voice and said more seriously, "Besides, I have something more important to tell you about the future of Casper High at the end of class! So let's get to it!"

The class groaned, but Danny, Sam and Tucker didn't...

Time crawled as usual in Mr. Lancer's class, but finally, he covered all that he planned to teach to the deaf ears, and was about to make his big announcement when he was interrupted by the bell. The students raced out before he could say any more, leaving Danny, Sam and Tucker—who had been in shock since the beginning of the class when Mr. Lancer had blurted out the rumor—still seated at their desks..

Mr. Lancer walked up to them and dryly asked, "Is there something I can do for you three?"

They didn't answer at first, but then Danny was the first to 'snap out of it'. He nervously replied, "Oh, uhm, sorry, Mr. Lancer. We have to get going!"

The teen rose from his desk and quickly nudged his friends, who then 'came out of it'—a little. But since Sam and Tucker didn't really move much, Danny tried to stall for time until they could stir. "Uh, well, we just, uh, heard about the rumor and are a little amused by it, too!"

This time all three of the friends laughed nervously—though Sam and Tucker hardly did so— and slowly began to inch toward the door.

Mr. Lancer, however, was not amused and growled, "Well, I'm not! All that craziness took time away from my important announcement, and for that, I'm downright perturbed!"

Danny, nervously looked at his watch and resorted to pushing his friends out the door, just as he uttered, "Speaking of 'time', we gotta run or we'll be late for our next class! Bye, Mr. Lancer!"

He grabbed the still stunned Sam and Tucker and pulled them through the hall and into a nearby closet near Mr. Lancer's room. He quickly locked the door behind them, sighed in relief and said out loud, "Thank goodness we all have a free period right now!"

He turned to his friends but could see that they were still paralyzed.

Danny tried to jolt them back to reality, and shaking each of them he said, "C'mon, guys! I need you two here!"

But they still didn't move. He was particularly concerned that Sam hadn't snapped out of it yet, not knowing that it was because of what she had been reading—and believing—a little too much of lately.

Suddenly, an icy blue mist escaped from his mouth...

"Oh, great!" He groaned, and quickly transformed into his ghostly black-and-white-clad alter ego, Danny Phantom. He floated to the still-dazed-and-now-leaning Tucker and righted his friend. Then he became invisible and exited the closet, leaving his friends behind.

As soon as he left the closet, however, he noticed a few students had gathered around the closet door. He momentarily halted his mission and listened in.

Paulina pointed to the door and anxiously insisted, "I told you I saw him and his geeky friends go in there! Do you think they're planning something 'ghost-like'?" She immediately began to jiggle the locked door knob quite violently after her comment. The door squeaked loudly under all that jolting.

Danny knew this wasn't good. He gasped to himself, _"__Oh, __no! __I__'__d __better __get __back __here __as __soon __as __possible, __or __they__'__ll __see __that __I__'__m __not __with __Sam __and __Tucker!__"_

He rushed off and phased to the outside of the school. His ghost sense was activated again and he strained to see any ghost. Getting more worried as time ticked by, he frantically scanned the area and finally spotted what was bothering his ghost sense.

He laughed when he saw the very tiny orange ghost worm inching its way toward the school building, chomping at whatever was in its path. He flew down and landed next to it. Stooping to pick it up with two fingers, he was unexpectedly jolted to the ground by the huge amount of ectoplasmic energy emitted by it. He landed flat on his back right next to the ghost worm, which resumed its eating.

Momentarily dazed by the shock, Danny pulled himself up on his elbows, and reached for his head with one of his hands.

"OW! What was that?" he blurted out and when he looked toward the worm again, he was astounded when it metamorphosed into an even uglier caterpillar-like creature with huge teeth, and grew to about his size. He tried to grab it again, and got an even bigger jolt. "Yeow!" he yelled, as he was riveted to the ground—again. He groaned, but this time it was in irritation with himself for trying to touch it again.

But the caterpillar merely turned its back to him and moved more quickly to the school. When it got there, it immediately began to chomp on the building.

Knowing that this was more complicated than it had to be and that he didn't have much time before the kids might break in the closet door, Danny uttered, "Great!" And I thought the jolt on the closet door was bad enough! Now I have to worry about _**his**_!"

He shot at the creature but his ectoplasmic rays were absorbed by it. Then a few moments later, another— not green, but red— beam shot back at him. The teen gasped and barely had time to wield a green ecto-shield. He breathed in relief when the shield didn't buckle, and was just as surprised that it refracted the red ray back at the giant worm, zapping it.

"_That__'__s __it!__"_ He thought and immediately yelled, "OK, Ugly, give me your best shot, 'cause you're going to get mine!"

And just as quickly, the young hybrid intensified his ectoplasmic ray from one of his hands and sent it toward the beast. He maintained his shield with the other hand, and waited.

A moment later, a larger red beam shot from the point where Danny's green ray had entered the creature and jettisoned toward him. The teen braced for the impact, and concentrated on the way he should hold his shield. The struggle against the red force was stronger than Danny thought it would be but then he only focused harder and pushed against it, angling the shield to where he thought it should aim. Finally, the red beam refracted back and hit the giant ghost creature, zapping it with such force that it leapt from the ground.

This time, it turned away from the school in anger, now determined to rid itself of the creature that just attacked it.

"Uhm," Danny said, "Maybe my best shot wasn't such a good idea after all!"

Meanwhile, back at the school's hall closet, Dash ran up to the crowd and yelled, "Hey! Danny Phantom is outside fighting a big ugly ghost thing trying to eat the school!"

Some of the kids started to run to the outside, but Starr grabbed the door handle again and excitedly answered, "Then, let's see if Danny Fenton is still in here!" She immediately started to pull harder on the locked door knob. Paulina and the other kids around her quickly joined in and tried to loosen the knob.

Finally, all the commotion outside the door finally snapped Sam and Tucker completely out of their shock.

"Uh, how did we get in here?" Tucker uttered.

Sam gasped at her next thought, which was not about how they got there. She then responded, "I don't know, but I want out! And where's Danny? We gotta talk to him about that rumor! I was afraid that this would happen!"

"Yeah, how did they find out? Did someone see him change or something?" Tucker asked, not catching her real drift.

"I don't think so, or at least, I hope not," She replied, still frowning with anxiety. "And I hope all that stuff doesn't come true!"

"Huh?" he blurted out, totally bewildered.

"Never mind! We need to find Danny!" she answered, her voice clearly ringing with agitation.

"Well, OK, I'm with you. Let's get out of here!" He said.

"OK. Let's go!" She agreed.

They approached the shaking door. But just before Tucker could unlock it, Sam grabbed his hand away and slowly uttered, "Uh, Tucker, let's wait a minute. I have a bad feeling about this."

Tucker skewed up his face and moaned, "Danny was right. Girls are SO fickle!"

Sam scowled in response.

The giant caterpillar-like ghost thingy moved quicker than Danny expected. The young hybrid darted just out of range just as it shot at him again. But its ray this time was blue, not red.

"_Now, __what __does __**that **__mean?__"_ The ghost boy thought. _"__But __it __doesn__'__t __matter! __I__'__m __taking __way __too __much __time __with __this __thing!__" _He knew he had to come up with a quick plan.

But before he could react, a crowd of curious students happened upon the scene. But one of them inadvertently moved too close to the hostile creature. The giant caterpillar instantly spied the creature similar to the one who was attacking it and sped toward that unsuspecting human.

"Oh, no!" Danny gasped, and soared downward to the hapless student, just as another blue ray made its way toward that kid. Thanks to his super speed, Danny was able to get between the ray and the human and the young ghost took the brunt of the force of the blue ray. It stung a little but the jolt did not have the same kick as the one he had when he was zapped by the little ghost worm in the first place, or when it refracted his rays back at him.

Danny's mind raced with the thought. _"__So, __I __get __it! __It __magnifies __what__'__s __thrown __at __it! __Maybe __I __can __still __defeat __this __thing, __if __I __don__'__t __use __my __ectoplasmic __rays! __So, __I __wonder __how __it__'__ll __react __to __my __ice __power?__"_ But then he thought about it again. "_It__'__ll __just __might __throw __an __iceberg __back __at __me, __that__'__s __what!__"_

But his thoughts were suddenly interrupted as the body of the caterpillar suddenly began to swell and grow again.

"Oh, man!" Danny yelled. "Well, no time to think anymore. Time to act!" And doing just that—and acting on a desperate hunch—Danny willed his wulf claws to emerge; and then pouring on more of his super speed, he charged at the creature with his arms fully extended in front of him and thrust the talons right through the creature. It, in turn, immediately exploded and the force of the impact pummeled the boy to the ground. And before he could react, he was enveloped by a hefty blanket of what was left of the creature, orange goop and all.

Danny instantly flung the goo off and looked up. In the caterpillar's stead, a very large beautiful orange ghost butterfly hovered above him and it quickly flapped out of existence.

The crowd of students cheered at what they just witnessed, and Danny responded with an awkward, embarrassed wave of his hand as he acknowledged their attention. But immediately coming to his senses, he quickly soared away from the school with the cheers still echoing in his ears.

He then turned invisible and double-backed just as rapidly as he could to the closet he left Sam and Tucker in, just as the other mass of kids finally ripped the closet door open.


	3. Chapter 3 More Traps

**A/N: I hope you this story is getting you to chuckle a little! Thanks for the reviews!! And hope you had a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!Now, without more ado, here is Chapter 3. Enjoy, and you know the "not owning any characters' thing"!**

Rumor Has It—Chapter 3—More Traps

Sam and Tucker looked at each other and knew that the jig was up. As the light from the hallway flooded in, they instinctively shifted side-by-side, as if they were shielding Danny, which, of course, they weren't. And as they moved forward, shoulder-to-shoulder, they tried--unsuccessfully—to act as nonchalantly as possible, which, of course, was impossible given that they were in a closet for no apparent reason.

Suddenly, the two jumped at the sound of Danny's irritated voice, which was directed at the students who just busted in. "Do you mind? Can't a bunch of geeks have some privacy?"

"In a janitor's closet?" Tucker blurted out.

Sam hid her jab to Tucker's ribs just as Danny moved around his friends and sauntered out of the closet. Sam and Tucker quickly followed him and ignored the disappointed groans of the other students.

In no time, all the gawking bodies disappeared and Danny, Sam and Tucker headed to their lockers.

In the meantime, Paulina and Starr were right on the trio's heels, and rushed toward their nearby lockers. Paulina hurriedly whispered to her friend the only quick plan that she would ever be capable of coming up with— a simple one. Paulina quickly opened her locker wide enough for anyone who passed it to see that it was plastered with pictures of Danny Phantom. As she searched for what she wanted, she glanced toward the lockers nearby and when she saw Danny was still at his locker, she uttered to Starr, "We'll get him! You'll see! Just follow my lead!"

Starr, all ready getting tired about the rumor, whined, "How do you know if we're right, anyway?" Then pointing to one of Paulina's Danny Phantom pictures, she added, "He's not cool enough to be that cool!"

Paulina answered with a voice laden with irritation, "We both heard it--well, sort of! Anyway, we have to be sure! Now, don't forget on what to do!" She then closed her locker and looked to Starr. Each nodded in acknowledgement, knowing what their silent cue would be in their next plan.

The two popular girls walked up to the three friends. Pauline moved closer to Danny while Starr repeated her rehearsed snuggle up to Tucker. Tucker, of course, was obviously pleased, again.

And—again--both of the girls ignored Sam.

"Yoo-hoo, Danny!" Paulina sweetly cooed to Danny, her voice taking an 'I'm-still--in-the-know' tone to it. She again snuggled closer to him and purred, "That was **very** clever of you to be in the closet **and** fighting that yucky ghost outside. How did you do that?"

This time, Sam purposely interrupted the vixen, her voice laden with indignation. "Your make-up is on way too thick! Nobody can do that!"

Tucker blurted out, "Actually, Vlad…" But before he could continue, Sam's glare stopped him cold, and quickly covering up his mistake, he uttered, "Actually, I'm GLAD no one can! It sure would complicate things!"

But Paulina ignored them both and continued to speak to Danny in that sickeningly sweet voice of hers, "I'm sorry. I didn't hear you, Danny. What did you say?"

Danny--being Danny—started to come under Paulina's 'spell' a little and uttered, "You mean if I had a 'double me', you wouldn't mind?"

Paulina smiled and moved even closer to him.

Sam, writhing in fury and jealousy, glared at him.

But after Danny finally caught a glimpse of Sam and was riveted by her angry look, the teenage boy snapped out of it and stammered, "I-I mean, I don't know what I mean! I'm just me and me alone!"

Paulina frowned at this response at first, then smiled again, undaunted. "OK, for now, Danny! But I'll be watching you!"

Again falling under her 'spell', Danny murmured, "You will?"

Paulina purred in triumph and began to walk away, signaling to Starr, who immediately shoved Tucker away and rejoined her friend.

Sam rushed up to Danny and grabbing him at the shoulders, shook him, "Are you nuts? What's wrong with you, Danny? Do you know what this means if we let your secret all out?"

"That I'll finally be getting more than fifteen minutes of fame?"

Sam scowled and sarcastically answered, "Urgh! That's right, Danny! And think of what will happen with that kind of fame!"

Danny looked at her and calmly replied, "Actually, I've been thinking about it and maybe it wouldn't be so bad to finally get the recognition I deserve."

Sam and Tucker both stared at him in shock.

Tucker stammered, "You don't mean that, do you?"

Danny turned to his friends and answered, "And why not? Maybe this 'secret identity' thing has been overdone. It sure has complicated my life way too much!"

Sam, slightly taken aback, uttered what had been on her mind and what she had been reading too much of lately, "And you think that telling everyone who you are will simplify everything? Being a celebrity isn't all it's cracked up to be, you know."

"How would you know that?" Tucker asked, puzzled at her comment.

She chuckled nervously and said, "Well, uh, sometimes I read those types of silly blather magazines when I'm at the dentist or doctor's office, and, uh, my grandmother has a few…Uh, doesn't everyone?"

They all looked at each other. Danny looked at her in confusion and Tucker was too embarrassed to concede her point. So, of course, they all said nothing.

But then Danny replied, "Well, I don't know then. Let me think about it."

Just then, the bell rung and they headed to their next class.

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Finally, the bell rang for classes to change. Danny, Sam and Tucker headed to their lockers.

Both Sam and Tucker were aching to press Danny for his decision about his secret. But they were hesitant as well. What if his answer was not what they really wanted to hear? So they both kept mum about it. Instead, they chattered about just about anything else.

Then, right as Danny was opening his locker, Dash came out of nowhere and shoved him right into it. And slammed the door shut.

"Let me out!" Danny screamed. But of course his yell was muffled.

Sneering, Dash yelled back, "No way, twinkie!!! If you want to get out, you'll have to do it as the Ghost Kid. And since I don't believe that you are him, then you'll just have to be stuck in there for a while. And you deserve every stuffy minute in there for stealing my girl from me!" He replaced the lock on the locker and leaned against it.

"Leave him alone, jocko!" Sam said, pushing hard with all her might to get right between the locker and the jocko. She succeeded and now she was in front of the locker, taking a very threatening stance.

Tucker stood close by, shaking with fear, but uttered, "Yeah, Dash! We have to get to class!"

"Correction, techno-geek! _**You **_have to get to class. The nerd in there stays put until I prove he's not the ghost kid!" He stepped forward, but Sam defied him, her hands tightly fisted at her side. Dash jolted a little at the determination in her face.

Just then, Paulina and Starr came upon the scene. Sam saw them, and shoving Dash away again, ran up to Paulina and demanded, "Call off your guard dog, Paulina!! This is not funny! He's locked Danny in his locker and he's going to get Danny in trouble for being late to his next class!"

But Paulina smiled wickedly and with a very catty tone in her voice said, "All Danny has to do is melt out of there and then he won't be late!"

"Phase out," Tucker accidentally blurted out and then realizing his mistake, said more loudly, "I mean, **faint out**… Danny's going to **faint out** in that locker unless he gets some air soon! Please let him go!!"

Seeing that Dash, Paulina and Starr weren't going to give in and desperate to get Danny out, Sam went back to the locker and pushed Dash so hard with her whole body that he actually fell out of the way. Then she quickly unlocked the lock, opened the door and screamed, not expecting to see Danny **Phantom**! "No!" she yelled and violently slammed the door shut--again.

"Let us see!" Dash, Paulina, and Starr all yelled, thinking that Paulina's plan worked and that Danny Fenton wasn't in there.

"No! Don't open it! He must not have had enough oxygen. I think he's dead!" Sam screamed, bringing her hands up to her face in dread.

The popular kids stopped in their tracks in disbelief. But then, Dash said, "No way!" and before Sam could react, the resident athlete jerked open the locker and Danny Fenton fell out right at the jock's feet. And he didn't move. And his whole body was blue.

Dash, Paulina and Starr all screamed at **that** and ran away just as Danny brought in a deep breath.

"Are you all right, dude?" Tucker anxiously asked, helping his friend up.

"Yeah, nice save, there, Sam….OW!! What was that for?" he protested, rubbing his now hurting arm. She had given him a good wallop on it.

"You _**were **_going to phase out of there, weren't you? Why?" she demanded.

"No, I wasn't, sorta, maybe. But I didn't in the end!! I don't know why I did it! Maybe I wanted to…but I guess I was hoping to sneak out and get to class before….." And he suddenly shut up when he realized that doing that wouldn't have helped the situation at all. He really was confused about what he should do about it all.

"Sorry, Sam," he began, but then she said, "We'll talk about it later. We really don't have any more time! We better hurry. The bell is about to ring!"

All three friends made a mad dash to their next class and the bell rang just as they had stepped into class.

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Later that day, during lunch period, Danny, Sam and Tucker headed to their lockers again.

Both Sam and Tucker were even more worried--and their imaginations were going wild--because Danny still hadn't said anything about what he was going to do about the rumor. But, he almost blew it earlier, and now they weren't sure what all that would mean in the end. Again, they were afraid to say anymore, so they yakked a whole lot about still other totally unimportant things.

Finally, they got to their lockers. No one else was near them or in the hall.

Suddenly, a ghost appeared nearby Starr's locker, just a couple of lockers down from where they were.

Sam and Tucker gasped but Danny had his back to it and didn't even react at all.

"What?" he asked, seeing their chagrined faces.

"There's a ghost!" Tucker said under his breath.

"There's a ghost?" Danny repeated, frowning with confusion. "There can't be! My ghost sense didn't go off!"

Without changing her expression, Sam signaled with her eyes for Danny to turn around and look.

And when Danny did, the ghost wailed.

But then Danny reflexively gasped with a loud and obviously frightened shriek, "Ohmigosh! A ghost! Let's get out of here!" And he immediately started to run away.

Utterly surprised by his reaction, Sam and Tucker chased after him. But when they turned the corner, they ran right into him.

"Danny! What's going on?" Sam demanded. "Why didn't you 'go ghost' and get that ghost?"

"Shh!" he commanded, pulling both of his friends behind him so that they were all hidden by the corner. He slowly edged to the corner and barely peeked around it.

Starr, Paulina, Dash and Qwan were all huddled around Starr's locker and they were arguing. And Danny frowned in irritation of what he saw in the background.

"Just wait a second more! He'll be here!" Paulina insisted.

"But he looked like a scared rabbit! He's not the ghost boy!" Dash countered.

"And there's no sign that the ghost boy is here either!" Starr whined.

"Maybe he's shy and went to change in private?" Qwan offered.

The others frowned in annoyance at him, and he shrugged.

"No, he'll be back and this time we'll get him!!" Paulina insisted.

"But that won't prove a thing if the ghost kid comes and there's no Fenton!" Dash objected. "I'm telling you, Paulina, that rumor can't be right!"

"And I'm telling you to get lost if you don't prove it's right!" She hissed back, "Now, go get ready again!"

Dash stomped just out of sight to another part of the hall.

Danny was still not sure what he felt about it all, but he knew he reacted like he did because it had been second nature for so long. But then glancing behind the group, he saw something else in the background happen; and getting more irritated with their trap, made a quick decision.

"OK, guys," he informed Sam and Tucker. And just as he began to walk around the corner again, he added, "Just follow my lead!"

They looked at each other, totally confused by his remark and behavior, but didn't question him, and followed him.

"I'm telling you that I don't want to go near my locker as long as that ghost is there!" Danny purposely yelled very loudly, talking to Sam and Tucker. He stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he got near enough to just see his locker. But he had stopped so quickly that Sam rammed right into him. But then he suddenly grasped her hands and placed them on top of his shoulders, leaned back, and made it look as if **she** was the one pushing him toward his locker, which, by the way, she wasn't.

"B-but we still have to get our…uhm, books?!" Sam stammered just as loudly, all the while being both pulled and pushed by Danny. She was trying hard to get his drift but thought best not to resist his lead. So then she began to actually push him toward his locker, and he feigned resisting her.

"Look, they're coming back!" Paulina hurriedly whispered to her clique. "Get back to where you were before!"

All the conspirators disappeared just as Danny, Sam and Tucker were nearing their lockers again.

"Yeah, and besides, maybe…er… Danny Phantom already got rid of it?" Tucker squeamishly said, looking nervously around and not having a real explanation as to why the ghost they had seen earlier was now gone.

Danny shuddered and nervously scanned the area where the ghost had been.

"D-do you think it's gone?" he stammered loudly just as they came to their lockers. But then he uttered under his breath so that only his friends could hear, "Open you lockers!"

Sam and Tucker did as they were told and Danny opened his own.

"Now, start taking your stuff—**all** your stuff--out!" he quietly commanded.

They did, and all of the trio's arms were rapidly getting very full of all kinds of known and totally unknown stuff that somehow grew in high school lockers.

"OK, now just wait for my signal," he quickly whispered. He turned around and scanned the area nervously again.

Just then, the exact same ghost appeared and wailed.

Danny screamed very loudly again, threw up all the stuff in his arms and fell to the ground.

Sam and Tucker—startled by his unexpected yell--threw all their stuff up in the air too. And all that combined junk fell right on top of Danny and covered him up.

Sam gasped and began to reach down to pull the stuff off her friend when Tucker, who finally understood Danny's plan, crouched next to her and uttered, "Wait a sec, Sam!"

Just then, Danny Phantom emerged from the ceiling and yelled loudly, "Just where is that ghost, citizens?"

"Over there!" Sam and Tucker yelled back, pointing to the ghost.

Danny quickly blasted the locker and then darted away, just as Paulina and her crew dashed toward the pile of junk that was still at Sam and Tucker's feet.

Sam and Tucker kept staring where the ghost had been, but quickly noticed the popular kids who were now all converging upon the pile of stuff at the foot of their three lockers. Sam yelled, "Hey! Get away from our stuff!"

The clique, of course, ignored her and then Paulina sighed in disappointment as Danny groaned underneath the pile.

"Ohh, my head," he moaned and then finally seeing Paulina, he said, "Paulina! You saved me from that ghost!"

She threw the book she had pulled away from him back at him and this time he yelled in real pain.

"You can't fool me, Danny!" Paulina insisted. "You just wait and see!"

And she quickly stomped away and her friends followed quickly behind her.

Finally, Sam and Tucker helped Danny up out of the pile of stuff and they hurriedly began to cram it all back in, not paying particular attention to which lockers they put them in.

"OK, dude, what was that all about?" Tucker finally managed to blurt out. "Does this mean you've decided to keep your secret?"

"No! I, mean, I don't know! It's just that those jerks were being plain mean about this all and I wanted to get back at them!"

"But I thought it was a real ghost!" Sam remarked, glancing back at the projection of the still visible ghost, with the still smoldering locker behind it.

"It sure did look real, but since my ghost sense didn't go off, I just knew it had to be a fake!" Danny said with a smile. "Man, they're sure going out of their way trying to trip us up!"

"Well, then, I am impressed!" Sam said with a wry smirk.

"That I figured out that it was a fake ghost and still came up with that quick plan to fool them about me _and_ Danny Phantom?" Danny asked with a smug smile.

"No, that Paulina and all her cronies somehow were actually able to figure out how to turn on that projector!"

And all three laughed, but not in total relief. Sam and Tucker were still worried, and Danny began to debate with himself more seriously about what exactly he wanted to do about that rumor.


	4. Chapter 4 Failed Plans

**A/N: Here is Chapter 4! Enjoy, and enjoy the fact that I don't own any characters**.

Rumor Has It—Chapter 4—Failed Plans

But Danny still could not decide about whether to reveal his secret or not.

Later that evening, and before dinner, Danny joined his family at the kitchen table. His mother, Maddie was looking under a microscope, examining the remnants of some 'ghost-like' material. Every once in a while she would either move the slide or adjust the instrument.

His father, Jack, worked on some kind of ghost gadget; and as usual, was busy making very loud noises as he worked.

His sister, Jazz, sat reading a book.

Trying to get his parents' attention, Danny purposely cleared his throat and sat down. When his parents looked up at him, he uttered, "Uh, Mom. Dad. Do you think it would be bad to be famous?"

Jazz looked up from her book in surprise when she caught what he just said.

His mother, resuming her work, answered, "I don't know, honey. Somehow, being scrutinized ever moment of the day doesn't sound much like fun." She looked under the microscope and moved the slide containing the 'ghost-like' stuff so she could get a better look.

Jack, however, jumped up and flexed his arm muscles and pulling his hefty stomach in, excitedly gushed out his comment. "I---Jack Fenton--on the other hand, feel that a little public recognition would give the public what they deserve!"

Danny blankly blinked at him, uncertain of what his father said. But just as inscrutably, Jack immediately and quickly sat back down and went back to fiddling with his device.

"Gee, glad I asked," he said dryly, obviously disappointed. He then walked out of the kitchen.

But Jazz placed her book down and followed him.

When they got to living room, Jazz grabbed her brother's arm and pulled him around so she could see his face.

"What was **that** all about?" she asked.

Danny sighed, "I don't know. I'm just not sure about things lately. Like that dumb rumor at school…"

"…Which is true," she interrupted.

"I know, I know!" he interrupted back. "But I just can't take the terrifying truth! I really like my privacy; that nobody bothers me…" And then he suddenly thought of Dash and uttered, "…well, sort of…. And yet, a part of me kinda wanted this to happen: to finally get some recognition for everything I've done; to show everyone that I'm not a loser…"

With a slightly mischievous smile on her face, Jazz gently said, "But you're not a loser…just a geek!"

"Hey! You're not helping!" he objected and then he sighed, "Sorry. I know you were kidding. But I'm just confused on what to do!"

Jazz then became more serious and said, "Well, I think Mom and Dad are **both** right!"

Even more confused by her comment, her brother blurted out, "What?"

She crossed her arms, leaned against the living room wall, and smugly smiled, "Well, you've been working on duplicating yourself, right?"

Exasperated, he replied, "Yeah, like forever!"

Not changing her position, she continued, "Well, all you have to do is succeed, let everyone see both you and Danny Phantom together at the same time to prove that you are two "different" people, and then you can have your privacy and your recognition all at once."

But he reacted differently than she expected. His face knotted up into a scowl and his voice grew more sarcastic and louder with each word, "Hey that might work, if only **for the little** _**problem that **__**I HAVEN'T SUCCEEDED YET!**_

Trying to calm and encourage him, Jazz approached him and gave him a quick hug and said, 'Just give it a little more time. I'm sure you'll figure it out. I believe in you!"

She then left for the kitchen again.

His scowl melted to a smile just as she left.

----------------------------------------

The next day, Danny met Sam and Tucker at the front of the school. A lot of other students had also been loitering around waiting for the door to be opened, or just loitered around to avoid any doors opening. Many of them glanced at Danny when he walked up to his friends and looked quickly away, not trying particularly hard to avoid getting caught staring at him. But Sam noticed them and their constant whispers. To her--and even to Tucker--that buzz was deafening, but Danny was too tired to notice any of it.

In fact, before they went into the school, both of his friends noticed the large dark circles under his eyes. He obviously had not slept much that night.

Sam sarcastically uttered, "What happened to you? Did your groupies keep you up all night?"

Yawning, he deadpanned, "Very funny. Actually, I've been up all night trying to replicate myself." Then, surprising his friends and those around him, he suddenly yelled, "AND I JUST CAN'T DO IT!"

Seeing that all eyes were on him even more than they had been since the rumor began, Sam quickly and obviously yelled through her embarrassed smile. "But you HAVE to go in! We all are obligated to steel ourselves and open our minds to absorb all that wonderful knowledge!"

Her plan worked, and all the spooked students around them quickly vacated the area, leaving the trio alone.

"Uh, what was that all about?" Danny asked her.

"Just trying to have you blend in," she answered, though he really had no idea what that meant.

Tucker, staying on the original subject, then uttered, "Uh, dude, you've been working on duplicating, like, forever!"

Danny, still upset, glared at him, his eyes suddenly glowing green.

Tucker held up his hands in apology and nervously replied, "Sorry!"

Danny's eyes return to their normal blue and he sighed, "I'm sorry, Tucker. I just need to start working on it again! I've thought about this stupid rumor** a lot** lately, and I've decided that I'm not going to go "public". Remember how everyone crawled all over me after the reality gauntlet thing? And this rumor is even worse than that because no one seems to be happy about it! Especially me! I'm not getting any peace now and will never get any peace if it's all out in the open. I want to be the nobody I usually am when I'm not being Danny Phantom."

Suddenly, both of his friends enveloped him in a tremendous hug.

Bewildered, he stammered, "W-what's that for?"

Tucker answered for both Sam and himself, and his voice was mixed with relief and anxiety. "Dude, if you were famous, do you really think we would be up there in the limelight with you?"

Danny shrugged and replied, "Yeah, sure, why not?"

Sam chimed in, "Because it doesn't happen that way! Old friends are pushed aside for the new chic friends."

"Oh, c'mon, guys," Danny chuckled. "That doesn't happen in real life!"

Tucker excitedly countered, "No, it does! You get sucked into some kind of other dimension with all fame. Then there's no room left over for us little people."

Danny looked at each of them in utter amazement.

Then Tucker shrugged in embarrassment about his little secret and said, "You know how prolific those magazines are in those doctors' offices!"

"But you hate doctors!" Danny countered.

"How do you think I survived the wait?" His bespectacled friend uttered with a weak smile.

And then the first bell rang and the three friends finally went into the school.


	5. Chapter 5 Turning the Tables, Sort of

**A/N: Well, hope you're still having fun with this story! Now, here is Chapter 5. Enjoy!**

Rumor Has It—Chapter 5--Turning the Tables, Sort of

Fortunately for Danny, Sam and Tucker, there was an all-purpose special assembly most of the day and the entire student body was gathered in the gym for it. That made it easy for the three friends to ignore most of the small pockets of whispers that surrounded them as they sat throughout the event. And they were just as successful in avoiding Paulina and her crew. In fact, the day was so busy that the popular group did not have any opportunity to corner the trio. Not that it would have made a difference even if they wanted to. They had really run out of ideas on how to trap their prey.

And the morning rushed by and before everyone knew it, it was lunchtime. But then, the trip noticed the popular group huddled in a corner of the cafeteria.

"I can't believe that they're actually capable of still exerting mental energy on that stupid rumor, much less thinking of some kind of way to trip us up!" Sam said in disgust as she ate her lunch.

"Yeah, I would've thought that they had all ready used up their allotted brain cells for the week by now!" Tucker added with a smirk.

"Yeah, you know it!" Danny chuckled. "Well, at least they didn't get us so far today, and the way this day is going, they won't be able to get near us! But still, I'm really going to work even harder at trying to replicate myself as soon as I get home," he promised, suddenly yawning.

"I hope you don't wear yourself out, dude," Tucker said. "You know what happens when you get exhausted!"

"Don't worry, Tuck, I can handle it!" Danny assured him with another yawn.

His friends weren't so sure of that. But what was certain for now and for the rest of the day was that the trio had managed to keep out of the sites of the predators--alias Paulina and her friends.

* * *

After spending all night trying to replicate himself—again-- Danny dragged himself to school the next day. He was so tired that not only did he still not notice the still growing talk about his being the ghost boy, but he also didn't even notice Sam and Tucker who were waiting for him as he headed in automatic pilot to their usual meeting place.

"Hey, are you there?" Sam asked, flapping one of her hands in front of Danny's barely- registering face.

"Huh?" Danny murmured. "Oh, hi, Sam. Did you just get here?"

She looked at him queerly and then before she could remark, Tucker fretfully said, "Man, you look beat! Didn't you get enough sleep?"

"Huh?" Danny murmured again. "Oh, hi, Tuck. Did you just get here?"

"Talk about broken CDs!" Sam said. "Were you up all night trying to replicate yourself again?"

Danny didn't answer her.

But before Sam could comment again, Paulina, Starr, Dash and Qwan came up to them.

"Yoo-hoo, hello, Danny!" Paulina called to Danny in that sickening voice, and, of course, ignored his friends.

Dash gritted his teeth but Danny didn't answer—or even look at--her.

"Will you just leave him alone?" Sam growled, stepping in front of Danny and taking her 'just-look-at-me-wrong-and-I'll-be-glad-to-punch-you' kind of stance. "Your stupid rumor is making him a nervous wreck! He can't even sleep because of it!"

Dash hissed, "Well, then, that means we can finally get to the bottom of this stupid…" He stopped when Paulina frowned in irritation at his comment. "I mean now that **Fenton** will be too tired to worm his way out of anything. You were lucky yesterday. Just watch out!"

The clique snickered, and then turning around, headed into the school.

"This is bad!" Sam frowned in worry, watching the group disappear into the school.

"And this is worse!" Tucker yelled from behind her.

She jerked around and saw an obviously zonked Danny slowly seeping into the ground as his legs unexpectedly became intangible. Tucker, holding under both of his friend's arms, was desperately trying to prevent his friend from totally succeeding.

Thinking quickly, Sam grabbed one of Danny's arms and commanding a "C'mon!" to Tucker, pulled the still senseless Danny behind some bushes just as he went totally intangible and completely oozed out of their arms. The sleeping—and intangible--boy didn't seem to be bothered in the least as he slipped to the ground with a peaceful smile on his face.

"Now what are we going to do? You know he only does this if he's exhausted! And if he keeps falling asleep and going intangible like this, then it's all over!" Tucker moaned.

"I don't know! Let me think!" Sam objected. Then she brightened at her next thought. "Just hide him until I get back, OK?"

Just as she left, Tucker dryly said, "I think he has "hiding" covered just nicely right now!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Sam had sneaked into the teacher's lounge. She spied what she needed and seeing her chance, darted in and out as fast as she could.

"OK, Tucker, let's try to wake him!" she said when she returned.

"How? We can't shake him!" Tucker said.

"Urghh!!" she said as she knelt by her friend. "Danny!! Danny, wake up!!!" she loudly growled right into his intangible ear.

"Uh-huh?" Danny groggily muttered, turning solid again. "Sam? Is that you?"

"Here, Danny, drink this," she commanded, as she gave him the cold, black liquid.

Since he wasn't quite awake, he dutifully drank. When he was about all done, he started to gag and then coughed, "What the heck is that?"

"Uh, coffee," Sam sheepishly said. But she didn't know that it had been leftover concentrated coffee from the day before. And she especially didn't know that Danny had never had coffee before.

"Coffee from where? Never mind! The way it tastes, I don't want to know!" he gagged again.

Sam told him, "You fell asleep and went intangible! What else were we supposed to do? You needed something to help you stay awake!"

Suddenly, as the effects of the caffeine in a hybrid's body kicked in, Danny's face brightened and his eyes suddenly widened and turned a brilliant green before returning to their original blue.

Sam noticed the change in his face and murmured, "Uh, Danny, have you ever had coffee before?"

"No, why? But maybe I should've had it before, 'cause I feel great!" he replied, quickly jumping to his feet right from the ground.

Tucker and Sam startled at his response.

"Uh, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all!" Sam stammered, chagrin now written all over her face.

"C'mon, guys, we're going to be late," Danny rapidly said before turning and actually running into school and up to his locker.

Paulina and Starr were waiting at their lockers with whatever lame plot they had managed to muster up. They smiled when they saw Danny in their sites, but the boy was at his locker and then darting right to class before the two girls could even comprehend that he had been there.

Sam and Tucker then ran up to their lockers. Tucker, who was out of breath, got what he wanted and turned to Sam. Sam, who was not out of breath, got what she wanted and without hesitating, grabbed the still panting Tucker and chased after their friend.

Paulina and Starr looked after them totally baffled.

"What was that all about?" Starr asked.

"I don't know, but they must be up to something! Let's go!" Paulina answered, as she also ran after the trio. Starr was right on her heels.

Fortunately, Sam and Tucker found a very awake Danny sitting in his chair, eagerly awaiting the beginning of class. Unfortunately—as they would soon see—they were in their math class.

Mr. Falluca dragged himself into the classroom. He yawned and put his briefcase down and slowly opened it just as the bell rang.

"Sorry, people," he said, yawning again. "I was so rushed today that by the time I went to get my morning cup of coffee in the teacher's lounge, it was all gone! I really need that hi-test brew left over from the night before!"

The class groaned in response with this more-than-they-needed-to-know information; and Sam and Tucker actually began to feel sick. But Danny was on overdrive with another thought and did not notice the teacher's comment.

"OK, class,…" the math teacher began.

"Mr. Falluca?" Danny excitedly interrupted him, shaking his hand wildly.

"Yes, Mr. Fenton?" he answered.

But Danny's rapid-firing response barely registered with the sleepy teacher or anyone else in the room. Even though he said, "I know the answer to the first problem!", everyone else thought they heard one mega-word: Iknowtheanwer-tothefirstquestion!

The teacher blinked but then he kinda knew what the boy said. "But I haven't put it on the board yet!"

"Oh, yeah. ButI'mready!" Danny said with gusto.

Sam and Tucker squirmed with dread.

"OK, you can have a go at it, and if you solve it, of course, that will give you extra credit, meaning two full "A" test grades," Mr. Falluca said as he slowly wrote the problem of the day, the same one he always put up and no one had ever attempted.

The class looked on with anticipation.

Danny waved his hand wildly at the teacher again, "MrFalluca?"

"Uh, yes, Mr. Fenton?"

"I know the answer!" the boy said so rapidly and excitedly that everyone in the room again thought they heard one huge word: "Iknowtheanswer!"

"Uh, you already said that, I think. OK…" but before the teacher could complete his sentence, Danny had jumped out of his chair; and before the astounded teacher and class knew it, the boy had written the entire equation out and was proudly standing next to his circled answer.

After a few moments of shocked silence, Mr. Falluca stammered, "Very good, Mr. Fenton!! That's the first time in my twenty-five years of teaching that a student not only solved that problem, but actually did it in less than a minute! Uh, are you all right?" The teacher didn't even know if the answer was right, because it had been so long since _**he**_ solved it.

"Ifeelgreat!" Danny said, and everyone else in the room blinked in bewilderment.

Mr. Falluca thought better than to say anymore, except, "Uh, OK, you may be seated, Mr….."

But before he could finish—again—Danny had practically jumped over the first two rows of seats to get to his own. He quickly sat down and then sat upright, bright-eyed and eagerly awaiting the rest of the lesson.

Paulina and Starr looked at each other and smiled in triumph. They would get him now.

Sam and Tucker glanced at each other and frowned in anxiety. They were all doomed.

Time definitely fast-forwarded for the entire class because of Danny's frenzied hyperactivity. Mr. Falluca hadn't planned on covering **two** full lesson plans then, but Danny was so enthusiastic that the teacher didn't have the heart to slow the boy down--not that he really could anyway.

After class, however, and much to Sam and Tucker's relief, Paulina and Starr couldn't keep up with Danny enough to even begin to try to trip him up.

But the popular girls didn't know that they still might just get the chance….

…Because just toward the end of third period, it was becoming rapidly apparent that the effects of the coffee were beginning to wear off. Danny's bright eyes were morphing into barely opened ones. And Sam and Tucker felt an odd mixture of relief and panic when they saw their friend beginning to wilt right before their eyes.

"Tucker, do something!" Sam commanded under her breath as Danny began to phase out again.

Tucker fretfully pulled out a small hand-held video game from between his books and feigning a loud sneeze to mask his arm movements, launched it right at his friend. The aim was true and Danny yelled out in pain—but at least it was **awake** pain.

The whole class and Mr. Lancer turned and looked at him, frowning in irritation.

"Mr. Fenton, if you don't mind!" Mr. Lancer tartly said and his laser-like fiery eyes bored more awake pain into Danny.

"Oh, sorry, Mr. Lancer, I don't know what hit me...!" Danny said, rubbing his head and adding under his breath, "…literally!"

But thankfully, it was enough to keep Danny alert until the class ended.

The bell to switch classes rang and the three friends met right outside the classroom.

Danny was still feeling the effects of Tucker's aim when he said, "Man! How did we get to fourth period all ready?"

"For you, very quickly. For us, very painfully!" Sam dryly said.

"You should talk!" he replied, rubbing his head again. "No, really, what happened? It's all a blur!"

"Yeah, **that's** the word!" Tucker muttered. "We, uh, gave you some coffee, dude. And trust us; it's a very good idea for you to totally avoid it from now on!"

Danny yawned and nodded.

Sam turned slightly away from Danny and looking at Tucker, said to both of them, "Well, the good news is that Danny's hyperactivity kept Paulina and her creeps out of our hair. We have literally been going non-stop until now."

"And now there's the bad news," Tucker commented, pointing to the now sleeping--and still standing—Danny, who was all ready beginning to ooze into the floor.

But this time, they were able to shake him awake before he fully dematerialized.

"What? I'm awake!" Danny said, becoming solid again only to immediately drift off again.

"Now what are we going to do?" Tucker whined as Sam grabbed Danny by his shoulders and shook him awake again. Danny barely responded.

"Well, we could hide him and try to dress up as him again!" Tucker suggested.

"Nah, that won't work!" Sam said, rejecting the idea with the wave of her hand before shaking her friend again.

Tucker continued, "But we still have one period to go before lunch!"

"But at least it's P.E.!" Sam said, goading Danny to wake up after he fell asleep again. "We might be able to keep him awake with all the activity or, like you said, hide him while he sleeps!"

"I vote for the last option! I think keeping him awake will make me exercise even more than the ones I try to avoid during P.E.!" Tucker said.

They dragged their barely awake friend into the gym, looking for a hiding place. But as soon as they and all the other students got halfway in, Mrs. Tetslaff bellowed, "OK, class! It's time for a heath pop quiz!" She then pointed the way to the adjoining classroom. "Go into the classroom and we'll get right on it!"

As soon as Danny sat down he began to drift off.

Sam grabbed Tucker and commanded, "C'mon!" She led him to a bookshelf full of heath books and ordered, "Take as many books as you can and follow me!"

Struggling with their load, Sam and Tucker moved as quickly as they could to where Danny was and just as he was phasing out, slammed the entire stack of books right around him. The books momentarily hid his turning intangible from the class's view while the loud plop of the books woke him up, jolting him back to a solid form.

"Ms. Mason and Mr. Foley!" a very loud voice boomed behind them, which caused the entire class—including Danny—to jump to attention. "This is not an open book test! Go put those books back!"

"Yes, ma'am," Sam and Tucker said together as they gathered the books back up and purposely dropped them several times along the way, saying "Sorry!" very loudly as they stumbled back to the bookshelf. The noise was enough to keep Danny barely awake--and tangible.

Paulina and Starr observed them all along, knowing that the three friends were up to something, but they said nothing--and waited.

Finally, Sam and Tucker headed to their chairs, but not before Sam noticed Danny falling back asleep. She quickly shoved him out of his seat as she passed him. Danny landed with a thud and was bolted awake. "Ow!" he yelled and got up off the floor and sat down at his desk again.

Now Sam and Tucker knew that there was nothing more they could do as Mrs. Testlaff started to hand out the quiz. They bit their lower lips as they watched Danny drift off again. Sweat began to form on their foreheads, seeing Paulina and Starr staring at them and knowing that Danny's going intangible was only moments away. And just when he was beginning to phase out….

The fire alarm blared.

Sam and Tucker let out a sigh of relief, and Paulina and Starr let out a sigh of aggravation when Danny woke with a start; and then the entire class rushed out of the building.

The trio kept to themselves, moving away from the crowd as they waited outside; and by the time they were let back into the building, it was time for lunch. Sam and Tucker would be thanking the lunch lady for burning their lunches.

The three friends quickly headed toward their lockers. Danny looked a little more refreshed and Sam and Tucker told him what happened.

"And I thought I was just having a nightmare," he said, reflexively rubbing his still sore head. "I don't think I'm that sleepy anymore. Between the caffeine rush in the morning and adrenaline rush after the fire alarm, I think I'm good to go for the rest of the day. And, uh, thanks for the save, you guys…I think!! Though I don't know if your kind of torture was better than Paulina and her cronies!"

All three laughed and headed to the cafeteria.


	6. Chapter 6 Unexpected Surprises

**A/N: Now, finally, here's the scoop for your enjoyment! Here in Chapter 6!! Hope you enjoy it! And, of course, I do not own any characters. **

Rumor Has It—Chapter 6—Unexpected Surprises

Danny, Tucker and Sam were soon in the school cafeteria at their usual table, ready to eat whatever unburnt lunch was still available to them. But the behavior of everyone else in the room interrupted their every bite. It was painfully obvious that every one of the students purposely steered away from their usual paths to their tables so that they could pass and eye the friends, making comments under their breaths as they went by.

Chagrined at how blatant the scene was, Tucker mumbled under his breath, "Now I know how all those animals feel in the zoo!"

"Finally! You understand!" Sam said in triumph.

Meanwhile, not far from them, Paulina and Starr were in one corner of the room, busily whispering between themselves. Now that Paulina and Starr could see that Danny had considerably slowed his pace, they were eager to try out their next plan. But what they didn't know was that in a moment they would not get the chance...

...Because in the other near corner, a very jealous Dash huddled with a few of the other jocks, making his own plan.

Dash hissed to Qwan for the hundredth time, "I still don't see what Paulina sees in him! He's, like, shorter than I am!"

"Well, not as short since that crazy time when we all got shrunk!" Qwan replied, but seeing that this made Dash scowl even more, Qwan fretfully raised his hands in surrender and clammed up.

While switching his gaze between Danny, Sam and Tucker's table and his minions, Dash continued, "That can't be it! It's all because of that stupid rumor! But I'll never believe that **that** **Fen-turd** over there is the Ghost Kid! And darn it if I'll prove it…A ghost can't get hurt by one of these, can he?"

The jock whipped out a very large, ugly and deformed jalapeño hot pepper. It oozed with naturally and unnaturally colored juices; and its fetid odor reeked so badly that those kids standing in its immediate vicinity choked on the fumes.

Dash explained further, "My cousin has had this hidden under his bed, saving it for just the right moment. Like now! If Fen-tiny has no reaction to this, then he is the Ghost Kid. If he does react, well, then-- heh-heh-- it'll serve him right for stealing my girl from me! C'mon, we've all ready discussed the play-by-play. Let's go!"

So while Qwan and the other jocks distracted Sam and Tucker, Dash walked up to Danny with his hand hiding the hot pepper behind his back.

He addressed Danny through gritted teeth, "Listen, jerk! I don't for one minute believe you're anything special! You're not cool enough to be Danny Phantom. In fact,…" Dash suddenly looked up and pointed out the window with his free hand and exclaimed, "…there he is now!"

Truly perplexed, Danny uttered, "Huh? Where?" He quickly looked toward where Dash was pointing, and of course, saw nothing. But this was just enough of a distraction to give Dash the chance to drop the red pepper into Danny's salad, into which the vegetable monster quickly sank.

Dash then snickered, "Uh-oh! He's all ready gone! Not quick enough to see him, were you, nerd?"

He snorted as he walked away and re-huddled with his clique. They all turned and watched.

Sam, disgusted with the lame and contrived distraction that the jocks had set up, suspiciously asked, "What did Dash want? What's he up to?" She glanced at the group that just left and was just as wary when she saw that they were looking back.

Danny replied, "He was upset about that stupid rumor and accused me of not being Danny Phantom! So what else is new? Anyhow, it was nothin' to get worried about."

His friends just looked at him in silence, surprised at his casual attitude about it. They looked at each other and shrugged, attributing his response to his fatigue. They both resumed eating.

And just after making that comment, Danny pronged his salad. The group at the far end held their breath as he took a bite.

"Nothing happened!" Qwan whispered prematurely.

"Just wait! That thing sunk to the bottom as soon as it hit the salad. It has to wait and attack in secret," Dash hissed.

And just as Dash predicted, a few bites later, it became crystal clear that Dash's plan was successful, as Danny had finally gulped down the entire red pepper.

Immediately reacting to the vegetable that had just mercilessly attacked him, Danny shuddered violently and fell to the floor. Sam and Tucker looked on in horror as Danny's body twisted in agony, followed by an anguished—and loud--groan. And they didn't know until then that his face could change to so many colors so quickly as he reflexively held his aching head and roaring stomach at the same time.

Everyone else in the cafeteria froze at the sight.

Then Danny's eyes widened in fright with a feeling that he knew he would not be able to control unless he got to the bathroom—fast! Barely able to talk, he choked, "I gotta run!" And made a mad dash out of the cafeteria.

Dash and his cronies laughed hysterically at the scene. Calming a bit, Dash uttered, "See? I told you he wasn't no ghost!"

Sam glared at them and then fretfully looked in the direction that Danny had escaped. Tucker didn't hesitate to follow his friend.

Moments later, in the boys' bathroom, Danny still stood at the sink panting and sweating. Taking a deep breath, he began to wash his face at the sink when Tucker burst in.

"Man, are you all right?" Tucker fretfully asked.

Still panting, Danny moaned, "No! I didn't see anything crawling in my salad, but man, it's sure running in me now! I feel like my head and stomach are splitting in two!"

And to both of the boys' utter shock, Danny suddenly split into _two_ Danny Fentons.

"Wow!" Tucker gasped in awe.

Danny then closed his eyes, held his head and reformed back into one Danny Fenton.

Tucker, now very impressed and no longer concerned over how Danny was feeling, excitedly cried, "See if you can do that as Danny Phantom!"

His friend nodded weakly in acknowledgement. And much more slowly—and painfully--than usual, his jeans and shirt morphed to a black-and-white suit, as Danny struggled with the transformation. But at last successful, Danny held his head under his white hair, grabbed his stomach and closed his green glowing eyes and tried to split himself into two Danny Phantoms. Again--very slowly because of all the discomfort--he did it!

Still cradling his head and stomach, one of the Dannys groaned, "Great! So all I have to do to duplicate myself from now on is to think of my splitting headache and rumbling stomach and that'll do it?"

And the other Danny, who was also holding his head and stomach added, "That's definitely **not **something I'm looking forward to!"

Suddenly, the door of the boys' bathroom began to squeak open. Panicking and still aching and not thinking clearly, Danny tried to reform back to one Danny Phantom and change back to Danny Fenton all at once.

But before either Danny could do either successfully, Tucker hurriedly shoved both of him into one of the stalls. Then whipping out his PDA, Tucker turned to face the boy who was coming in.

Shoving the hand-held computer at the unsuspecting teen, Tucker stammered, "Uh, mind helping me out with this?"

That boy forgot why he was there and immediately turned around in response to this very weird request. And he left in a much bigger hurry than when he came in.

Not a moment later, Danny came out of the stall. He didn't realize that his right half was Danny Fenton--raven-haired, blue-eyed and all--from head to toe; and his left half was Danny Phantom—black and white suit, half a logo and all-- from head to toe. But he screamed when he finally discovered that fact in the mirror; and the other boy who had just left the bathroom heard Danny's scream and understood.

Both of Danny's halves yelled, "Tucker! Look what you did!"

Tucker cringed and replied, "Sorry, man! What else was I supposed to do?"

Both Dannys closed their eyes tightly, concentrated, and then finally turned back into **one** Danny Fenton. Inspecting himself again, he sighed, "Well, I seem to be OK, for now."

Then Tucker's eyes brightened at his next thought. "Hey, now that you finally got it, all you have to do is be Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom at once and we can stop this rumor!"

Danny conceded, "Yes, I know! But I'm not sure if I can do this again; and I especially won't try if it means eating that salad again! I'll work on it some more when I can catch my speeding stomach."

"You sure you're all right, then, dude?" Tucker asked, again worried about his friend.

"No, but thanks for asking. At least for now, I think I'm sorta under control," Danny answered with a weak smile.

And they left the bathroom and headed back to catch up with Sam.

Except for the continued whispers and finger-pointing by most of the students, and Danny, Sam and Tucker's automatic attempts to avoid everyone--especially Paulina, Dash and their crew--the rest of the day was relatively uneventful compared to all the other things that had gone on. The trio of best friends had never been so happy to have a school day end, and Danny promised to get some sleep, after, of course, he had caught that speeding stomach of his.

Tomorrow was going to be a better day, they hoped.


	7. Chapter 7 Some Kind of Hope

**A/N: Hope you're enjoying this fun and cute little story. And ditto for the character's thing. Now, here is Chapter 7. Enjoy!! **

Rumor Has It—Chapter 7--Some Kind of Hope

The next morning, Danny again met up with Sam and Tucker at the front of the school. Many of the students around them immediately reacted when Danny drew near. Groups of them huddled together with hushed whispers and accusatory pointing. Every once in a while Sam and Tucker heard a "Do you think...?", a "Let's make sure…", or a "But what about…?…" leak out amid all the even more buzz that was being generated around the school. And there was always someone somewhere spying on them. And especially with all the excitement that happened in the cafeteria yesterday, the rumor just wouldn't go away and the friends were getting more desperate. It was getting harder and harder for the three friends to find some time to be alone.

As Danny got close enough for Sam and Tucker to see his face, they could see that his eyes weren't as dark as they had been the day before, but their friend still looked tired.

Pulling him and Tucker away from the crowd, and seeing that they were far enough away to at least whisper something to each other, Sam turned to Danny and in a hushed voice dryly commented, "Up all night trying to duplicate yourself?"

"Up all night trying to duplicate yourself, I mean, myself!" Danny muttered, tired and discouraged. "No, I mean, I did get some sleep. I had the usual less sleep that I usually get fighting ghosts. But sort of enough awake time to practice and not fall asleep."

Sam and Tucker blinked at him kinda knowing what he meant, and Tucker hesitantly asked, "You mean you couldn't do it again?"

Danny winced and instinctively held his head and stomach again at the memory. "Well, yes and no! I can duplicate myself as Danny Fenton or as Danny Phantom. And each time I tried, I increased the amount of time I could maintain the duplicate Danny Fenton or Danny Phantom. But I can't do both of me at the same time!"

Sam and Tucker blinked at him, again kind of sure of what he meant. Then all three of their shoulders drooped, and they sighed, disheartened about their situation.

Tucker finally muttered a sad reply, "Then I guess we're going to have to put up with that rumor and all those traps that come with it!"

They entered the school and headed toward their lockers.

As they walked along, Sam, still undaunted in trying to think of a way through this mess, glanced up at all the posters advertising the Mardi Gras masquerade dance. She smiled with the wild idea that hit her, and excitedly exclaimed, "I know! What if Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom both show up at the masquerade dance this Friday?"

Danny, getting a little cranky, uttered, "Sam, weren't you listening?"

Sam also got a little irritated—and yet excited--and replied, "Yes, I was, but I have an idea! You can't show up as two Danny **Fentons** because then you can't use your powers. But you **can **show up as two Danny **Phantoms** if one of them was dressed up as Danny **Fenton **in a masquerade costume."

Danny shook his head in an effort to wake up. He wasn't getting her drift because of his fatigue.

"Urghh!" Sam uttered in response to his inattention. But she pressed on just the same. "Don't you get it? If you were two Danny **Phantoms**, one of them could be in disguise at the masquerade and the other one could fly around or something, impress everyone, and then everyone would see that the "real" Danny **Fenton **was at the dance and couldn't possibly be Danny Phantom."

Tucker, slightly bewildered by her plan but ready to go along with it, answered, "I caught that, I think!"

Danny yawned and remarked, "I don't know, Sam. I'm still getting the hang of the "splitting" part, especially the memory of my head and stomach splitting. But I'm not so sure how long I can stay duplicated, either as Danny Fenton or Danny Phantom."

Sam chimed in triumphantly, "Like you said, you're getting better all ready! So you have to do it just long enough to convince everyone that you are two 'different' people. And when it comes to Paulina and Dash and their cronies, that won't have to be very long at all! So, we better go to the store after school to get some stuff we'll need, because the dance is tomorrow night!"

"I still don't know, Sam," Danny hedged.

Tucker nodded weakly, agreeing with Danny.

"Well, do either of you have a better idea?" she challenged.

Neither of them said anything.

"Well?" she demanded.

Danny answered her. "Don't have one for now, but I did think of another idea while I was practicing duplicating that'll help us keep away from everyone as much as possible until I can duplicate better to the point that the duplicate can actually help us get rid of this rumor."

And his friends paused and blinked again, a little surer of what he said than the last few times.

He proceeded to tell them.

"Simple, but brilliant. It might work!" Tucker smiled and both boys looked to Sam.

"It's better than anything we can come up with in a hurry! OK. Let's try it!" she agreed with a shrug. "It just might work..."

And as the day dragged on, each of the friends worked very hard at using Danny's plan to keep as far away from Paulina and her friends as possible, while trying to keep as far away from the _rest_ of the student body, too.

All of that seemed impossible, of course, except that they were surprised that Danny's plan actually **worked**! They would never have guessed that sticking rigidly to their actual school schedule would throw everyone else off track! And they also stayed away from their lockers most of the day and were the last to leave their classes and the first to arrive at their new classes. They ate their lunches outside rather than in the cafeteria. And then right after school, they met in a rarely used area at the school and disappeared—literally-- thanks to Danny's invisibility power.

They all became visible once they landed in the alley near Tucker's house.

"What a sweet plan, Danny!" Tucker said. "I already got all my homework done because of it!"

"Yeah, so did I!" Danny smiled in triumph. "How about that?"

"Yeah, but let's not get into any habits!" Sam dryly said with a half-smirk. "We all ready have one bad rumor on our hands without starting the rumor that we actually want to study!"

They all laughed at her joke and then she said, "And speaking of 'rumors', we still have to get ready for the dance tomorrow night. Danny and I are still going to the store to get some stuff we need for it. Want to come along, Tucker?"

"Naw. Now that I have all this extra time, I'd rather catch up with my latest video session. I've been neglecting it too long!" he said with a smug smile.

Danny and Sam left and headed to the store…

-------------------------------------

"First, we gotta dye your hair," Sam said matter-of-factly to Danny, as she looked down the aisle containing the hair products in the store.

Mortified, Danny gasped, "What?!" She had said nothing about **this**!

Sam frowned and said, "Duh! Danny Phantom has **white** hair! It needs to be dyed black if he—you—are going to play being Danny Fenton, uh, during the dance, uh, you know what I mean!"

She picked out the box she thought would be the one to use and Danny's eyes widened.

He stuttered, "Uh, I dunno, Sam!"

Sam, getting irritated, replied, "Really, Danny! I don't think that we'll get another chance right now to convince the school that the rumor is false, even though we know it isn't! I think this is the only way. Unless you have come up with another one?"

He suddenly thought of another plan other than dying his hair permanently but he was afraid to share it with Sam, for now, because he didn't think she would agree.

They left the store after she bought the dye and then they headed to the costume shop.

But just as they got there, Danny's ghost sense went off. "Oh, no!" he moaned.

"Well, the hair-dying and the costume-shopping will obviously have to wait," Sam said.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Danny said as he transformed into his ghostly form and soared away.

But, unfortunately, he wasn't back right away. In fact, several ghosts had escaped from the Ghost Zone and Danny took most of the rest of the day trying to round them up. By the time he got back, no time was left to do either task. He called Sam right away and they agreed to meet at her house right after school the next day, which was, of course, the day of the dance. And that would give him the chance to try out his own plan to hide his white hair color before he would meet up with her…

Finally it was tomorrow. Each of the friends agreed to try the same plan they used so successfully yesterday to get them through the day. But fortunately, they didn't have to try very hard, because most of the talk was about the Mardi Gras dance. And much to the trio's relief, any talk about the rumor by Paulina and her conspirators was momentarily pushed aside. Everyone else was too excited to even notice that the three friends were trying to avoid them. But Paulina and her crew were undaunted. They would have another chance at the dance to prove the rumor. And they would wait until then…

All three friends hurried home right after school in order to get ready.

An hour later, Sam was pacing inside her bathroom while constantly checking her watch. "Where is he? I hope he didn't have to fight any more ghosts! We don't have much time!"

Finally, she startled slightly when Danny Phantom finally phased in, wearing a large baseball cap which was totally covering his head.

Sam pointed to the hat and dryly asked, "And just what is **that **supposed to say?"

"That **my** idea didn't work!" He sheepishly answered.

Sam gasped and uttered, "And just what was your idea?"

Danny took off his cap and revealed his grotesquely mottled black and white hair and gingerly replied, "That black shoe polish doesn't stick well to ghost hair!"

Sam stifled her laugh and didn't have the heart to tease him. "Well, if shoe polish won't stick to your ghost hair-- and I can't imagine why it wouldn't-- then hair dye certainly won't!"

"Sorry, Sam," Danny said in embarrassment, as he stuffed the baseball cap into his pocket.

Sam looked at her watch and exclaimed, "We don't have much time to worry about it! The dance is gonna start in two hours and the costume shop is gonna close soon. Let's just hope we can find something there that can help us! Let's go!"

He grabbed her and phased out of her house; and they headed to the costume shop.


	8. Chapter 8 Putting on the Show

**A/N: Hope y'all are still enjoying this story. Anyway, here is Chapter 8, and you know the routine about the characters. And, uh, Thunderstorm101, you were on the right track! Enjoy!**

Rumor Has It—Chapter 8—Putting on the Show

Danny, who had by that time landed with Sam in an inconspicuous place near the costume store, reverted to his human form. They hurried toward the shop. Along the way, they met up with Tucker, who was also looking at the last minute for a costume.

"Do you think we can pull this off?" Tucker asked as they all entered the store. And then he did a double take when he spied Danny's hair. Seeing that it was streaked in unnatural black and even blacker highlights, he blurted, "Uh, what's wrong with your hair, dude?"

Sam chuckled a little, "You don't want to know!"

Danny let the comment on his hair slide—except for whipping out the baseball cap back out and popping it back on his head--and answered Tucker's first question, "I sure hope we can! I don't know if I can live with having a rumor run as amok as my hair right now!"

With the clock ticking and the pickings spare, Danny and Sam frantically hurried to look for some kind of costume that could be used for their plan.

Suddenly, Danny spotted and picked up, of all things, a 'Danny Phantom' costume!

"Hey, he exclaimed, "I'm more popular than I thought!"

Tucker smirked, "Yeah. In fact, I think I'll just take that!" And he relieved Danny of the costume. His friend smiled in response. "Hey, did you find anything yet?" Tucker added.

"Not yet," Danny said.

"Well, good luck! I'll see ya tonight!" Tucker said as he turned toward the cash register with his costume.

"OK, Tuck, see ya!" Danny called back and returned to searching for something to wear. After a few minutes, he groaned under his breath, "There's gotta be another way to dispel this rumor! So far, the only costumes left are too large, too small, too 'girly' or too 'kiddie'!"

"Uh, Danny," he heard Sam say, and he turned and looked at her.

"Did you find something?" he excitedly asked.

He didn't like the weak smile on her face when she sheepishly replied, "Uh, I think so. I just want you to know that it has everything you need…It'll cover your Danny Phantom costume, shield your eyes and hide your hair."

He forgot his worry at the thought of this apparently perfect costume and exclaimed, "Great! Let me see it!"

--

Finally, the time for the Mardi Gras masquerade dance arrived. All the students were eager to show off their costumes. Tucker finally came into the gym with his own mask and, of course, in his "Danny Phantom" costume. He met Sam, who was already there dressed as "Elvira the Vampiress" and was waiting at the far end of the gym, near the bathrooms. She had taken off her mask at that moment, and she seemed to be alone.

When Tucker was near enough, Sam, after scanning around her again, whispered to the air--which was, of course, really a whisper to an invisible Danny Phantom--"OK, Danny, no one's around! Go ahead and duplicate and then one of you needs to switch into the costume."

A very unhappy Danny obliged her and after replicating, one of him materialized. She handed him the costume and he went into the bathroom to change.

The original Danny Phantom, in his regular costume, rematerialized nearby, but stayed in the shadows for now.

A few minutes later, an even unhappier Danny Phantom duplicate crept out of the bathroom wearing a sparkling white body suit, sunglasses and a very elaborately styled wig.

Tucker snickered, "Well, if it isn't Elvis Presley! Got any sweet moves?"

"Knock it off, Tucker!" Sam said as Danny growled threateningly.

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this!" a disgruntled Danny groaned as Tucker snickered again.

Sam looked at him with a "you-know-what-happened-the-last-time" look and dryly replied, "Well, it was the best thing we could come up with in a hurry. Did you have anything better in mind?"

His voice reflecting both his irritation of and concession to her point that, no, he hadn't had a better idea, Danny Phantom Elvis uttered, "OK, OK!" Let's just get it over with!"

Suddenly, Danny Phantom and Danny Phantom Elvis both experienced the familiar ice cold ghost sense, and both of them exclaimed, "Oh, no!"

Sam calmly replied, "That's OK! This is actually good timing! Danny Phantom will be in action. So, I only need one of you. Then, the other can go and do his thing, but just make sure that "his thing" can be brought here if possible!"

But Danny Phantom Elvis started to go by mistake and Sam grabbed him and yelled, "No, don't **you** go!" And then she pointed to the **real** Danny Phantom and insisted, "**You** go!"

"Oh, yeah, right!" Danny Phantom said under his breath and soared away to investigate what alerted his ghost sense.

Sam put on her mask and she, Danny Phantom Elvis and a masked Tucker hurried to the dance floor where the other students were in their various costumes and masks. Sam quickly pointed and yelled, "Hey, there's Danny Phantom!" just as the original ghost boy was about to exit the gym.

But unfortunately, most of the kids did not hear her above the music. But Dash, who was dressed up as a knight, thought he heard something that sounded like 'Phantom' and looked around. He spied Tucker in his costume. And then he angrily charged up to Tucker and seethed, "Hey, you're not Danny Phantom!"

Unnerved by Dash's accusation, but knowing that he had a part to play in Sam and Danny's plan, Tucker stuttered, "You're right! He's just left to fight some ghost! But over there is Danny **Fenton** and Sam, or I should say, 'Elvis and Elvira'!"

"You're wrong, techno-dweeb! Danny Phantom and Danny Fenton are both over there with that icky goth chick. But how would you know about that? You aren't cool enough to have any say so in it all. And I'm gonna prove it to you!"

Tucker tried hard not to gasp as Dash stomped over to where Danny Phantom Elvis and Sam were. But he sighed in relief when he saw that his friends got onto the dance floor just as the music started. And, fortunately, a whole lot of other students had immediately joined them and inadvertently prevented Dash from getting close enough to affront Danny.

The music that was playing had a great beat and Danny and Sam really got into it. Before the song was over, Danny was dancing strangely like Elvis Presley himself. All the other kids cleared the dance floor for him and cheered him on until the end of the song. Delighted with his "show", they all clapped when he was through.

Grinning a little at the thrill, Danny Phantom Elvis said in a very odd way, 'Thank you! Thank you very much!" And everyone laughed when his voice sounded, well, like Elvis Presley!

Suddenly, the gym began to shake violently, and everyone stopped, confused at the change. But what everyone in the gym didn't know at that moment was that outside, another, meaner, stronger, and much larger orange caterpillar-like ghost than the one Danny had fought earlier in the week had just taken a bite out of the building and was trying to take an even larger bite out it. And Danny Phantom, of course, was trying to stop it.

A few of the students ran outside to take a look at what was causing all the ruckus. They began to cheer the ghost boy on, but Danny was way too busy to notice.

"_I wonder if that is junior's big brother?_**"** the young hybrid thought as he shot an ectoplasmic beam at it. His green ray was absorbed just like the last time he had attacked the similar caterpillar ghost. Expecting to be attacked by a more powerful refraction, Danny charged up a shield and waited, ready to either dodge or refract what the creature threw at him.

But nothing happened and Danny thought, "_Or maybe he's his little brother?"_

He decided not to wait and see. He willed his wulf claws to materialize again; and throwing his arms forward, aimed the claws as he charged at the creature. But before he could make an impact, the creature unexpectedly and rapidly avoided Danny's strike.

Too shock to react, the original Danny Phantom then crashed to the ground, and the creature then crashed its tail on top of him.

"OW!" Danny yelled as he struggled to pull the creature off of him. "At least it didn't zap me like that little worm, even though that smack is high on my list of 'ouches' I don't want to remember!" He finally succeeded and threw his attacker off.

But the creature counterattacked again and swiping at Danny with its tail, threw him into the side of the building.

Panting and dazed, and seeing that the creature was not finished in its attack, Danny groaned, "Darn it! I can sure use my other me right about now!" And he gasped just as the ghost- caterpillar's large tail headed right at him again.

--

**A/N: Hey, gang! Y'all know I usually update on the weekends, but I'm going out of town next weekend and won't be able to update until the following weekend! Y'all have a great time until then!! And as always, thank you so much for your support and see ya soon! truephan**


	9. Chapter 9 The Trap Unsprung

**A/N: Well, I am back and thank y'all for patiently waiting for me!! And I hope you think it was worth the wait. Anyhow, I hope the story has given gives you a little chuckle while it's short ride lasted! Now, here is Chapter 9, and I, of course, don't dare own any characters. Enjoy!**

Rumor Has It—Chapter 9—The Trap Unsprung

Danny riveted away just as the ghost caterpillar's tail crashed into the place just where Danny had been. The blow left a large hole instead of a squished Danny.

Desperate, the ghost hybrid ghost soared upward and twisted violently around in an attack position. He instinctively shot his ice rays at the creature, but it batted the beams away and the ice rays hurled right back at him! The teen reacted quickly enough to avoid the cold beams just as he frowned in frustration and muttered, "The way he throws things back at me makes me think that he **must** be related to the pip-squeak after all! But the 'not zapping me thing' is still good! So, there's only one thing left to do."

The boy charged down and pummeled the beast with his fists. But the caterpillar repelled him, swiping at him with its tail again. Danny rapidly recovered from the blow and charged back, feet first, but then the beast whipped its tail even more violently at the boy, this time making firm contact. In fact, the force of the blow was so intense that the young hybrid was thrown several blocks away and landed roughly at the edge of Central Park. He was momentarily incapacitated and lay still in a daze.

The caterpillar then turned toward the group of students who had been watching the entire fight between the two ghosts. The humans screamed in panic and ran back into the gym for safety. But soon, it would become apparent that this was not a good idea to everyone who did go back into the gym, because the caterpillar immediately resumed its approach to devour where the humans went.

Meanwhile, the dance had still continued in spite of what had been happening outside. And, fortunately, the Danny duplicate--who was now a popular Elvis Danny duplicate--and Sam had stayed on the dancer floor since they had gotten on it, which, fortunately again, had been long enough to keep Paulina and her goons from trying out any more traps. But, unfortunately, the last little complication in Danny's battle with the ghost-caterpillar suddenly began to affect his second self...

Sam, still dancing with Danny Phantom Elvis, immediately noticed the change in the double. She leaned toward him and whispered, "Danny, what's wrong?"

The duplicate, though phasing out a little, was still able to maintain his form. But his face scrunched up in alarm as he hurriedly answered her, "I don't know! But something tells me this isn't good! I wonder where the other me is?"

The original Danny Phantom, of course, was still recovering from the giant caterpillar's last effective assault. His head finally clearing, Danny gasped and raced away from Central Park and back toward the gym. And as he frantically soared back, he didn't realize that his plan to stop the rumor was at that very moment in jeopardy. His duplicate was quickly dematerializing now that Danny had momentarily lost his concentration.

His panic now in high gear, Danny Phantom Elvis desperately whispered to Sam, "Sam, I'm phasing out! Do something!"

She looked around for something, anything which might help her in this extremely tense situation. She could see Paulina, Dash and a few others following the Danny duplicate and her every move from the corner of her eye, but she tried to ignore them as she desperately scanned for a quick remedy to their predicament. Finally, she spied some things in the distance and an idea hit her. Grabbing Danny Phantom Elvis by his—thankfully—still tangible arm, she maneuvered among the dancers until they both reached Danny Phantom Tucker.

"Tucker, we need your help!" She hoarsely whispered to their friend. "Danny's phasing out!"

Tucker quipped, "That happens to all pop stars!"

Sam growled, "Just c'mon!"

As they neared a partition in a far corner of the gym, Sam grabbed the balloons she had spied along the way and dragged the barely tangible Danny Phantom Elvis behind her, with Tucker hot on their heels. A little relieved that they made it in time, Sam looked at the now empty Elvis Presley costume and quickly instructed Tucker, "Let's stuff the balloons into the costume. Maybe we can get away with pretending Danny's still in it for a while with all the confusing dance lights!"

"I don't know, Sam!" Tucker stammered.

"Well, what else can we do?" she demanded. "We don't know where the real Danny is or what's happened to him!"

Her friend shrugged and immediately began to stuff the balloons into the costume.

Finally, Sam commanded, "That's enough balloons!"

But Tucker added one more, and it squeaked as he shoved it into the torso of the costume. Fortunately, the noise they had created was drowned out by the blaring music. Unfortunately, the result of their work was barely passable.

Inspecting—and keeping it from floating away—Sam moaned, "It looks too fat!"

"Yeah, now he looks like a middle-aged Elvis Presley!" Tucker smirked.

"You're not helping!" she growled as they pulled a few of the balloons out. They quickly floated up to the ceiling.

She scrutinized it again and complained, "And he's not that muscular!"

She pulled out a couple more balloons and quickly placed the sunglasses and the wig on the balloon 'head'. The props shifted, but then she pulled some tape off a few of the signs nearby and realigned them on the dummy as best as she could. She then made a quick line for its mouth with some eye liner make-up from her purse.

Suddenly, she, Tucker, and the balloon dummy she was holding all jumped at the loud commotion in front of the partition. They could see that the dance lights were dimming and the music was slowing in a very weird way as the chomping ghost-caterpillar had now eaten enough of the wall of the gym that it was now affecting the wiring, and consequently, the electronics in the gym.

Hoping this was the opportunity she was waiting for, Sam grabbed both of her friends--erh, well, Tucker and the dummy anyway--and boldly stepped onto the dance floor with them.

Then she deliberately spoke very loudly to the dummy Danny, trying to create as obvious a scene as she could in an attempt to avoid any suspicion. "Oh, no, Danny! What's going on? What are we going to do?" The goth girl held onto the dummy as if she were getting protected by it, when in fact she was holding onto it to keep it from floating away.

Several of the students around turned to them, confused by her odd yell. But Paulina and Dash scowled in suspicion.

"Just what is she doing?" Dash asked Paulina. From where they were standing, they could not tell that Sam was grasping a dummy.

"I don't know, but…" the popular girl began, sweeping her 'princess' costume away from her feet enough to let her take a couple of steps toward Sam and the dummy.

But Paulina didn't get to finish her thought, as the whole gym and gym floor shook violently from the ghost caterpillar's next assault. With all that quaking, the 'princess' gasped as she discovered first-hand that the weight of her dress was too much for her. Paulina was thrown off balance and thrown against some nearby tables.

Dash, too, had trouble maintaining his balance. His 'knight' costume was also too heavy and before he knew it, he was being thrust toward the wall. He banged into it with an instant groan.

All the other students also fought to stay upright and the noise in the gym had an odd ring to it as warped music and human screams intermixed with each other.

In a moment, however, the vibration stopped and all the other kids in the gym kids quickly recovered and now only the sound of the odd music could be heard.

Sam, meanwhile, had no difficulty staying balanced while clinging onto the dummy and she sighed in relief when the quaking ceased. But, then, much to her dismay, she realized too late that she had held onto the dummy too firmly and one of the balloons began to fizzle-loudly!

Tucker cringed at this snafu and tried to be as nonchalant as possible, which, of course, was impossible. Everyone around him and his friends frowned in disgust.

Mortified by this unplanned development, Sam squeaked, "Oh, you poor thing! And now you have…an upset stomach?"

Before any one else could react to the goth girl's more unusual behavior, the original Danny Phantom and the large ghost caterpillar, entangled in battle, phased into the gym and crashed to the floor. But instead of running away in fear, the kids gathered around the scene and cheered the ghost boy on.

Paulina, however, was not happy about what she was seeing. She looked inscrutably at the Danny Phantom who was fighting fiercely with the beast and then back at the Danny-Phantom-Elvis-Dummy-trying-to-be-Danny Fenton and frowned in irritation.

She stomped up to Dash in her disheveled 'princess' costume.

"I don't know how it got around school that Danny Fenton was the Ghost Boy, 'cause there's the Ghost Boy…" she complained, pointing to Danny Phantom just as he fell at their feet after being repelled by the creature again.

They watched as the ghost boy quickly recovered and charged back at the ghost caterpillar.

Then she pointed to Danny Phantom Elvis Dummy and continued, "…and there's Danny Fenton the Geek Boy with his geek friends!"

But Dash, relieved that Paulina didn't believe the rumor anymore, was having a rare moment for the first time now that he actually noticed something awry about anything. His eyes widening then narrowing at how odd the Danny Phantom Elvis Dummy suddenly looked, he muttered, "Uh, I don't know about that!"

"What do you mean?" Paulina demanded, upset that he should counter her.

"It's just that,…" He began, and looked back and forth, comparing the two Dannys. He scratched his knight helmet, but he didn't finish his thought. Still not satisfied, he started to walk over to where Sam, Tucker and the dummy were.

Sam and Tucker—but not the dummy—gasped in panic when they saw Dash coming, but just as he drew near enough to get a better look, Danny Phantom, who had just been hit by the creature again, crashed into Dash, knocking the jock out cold. Obviously, his knight's armor had not done him any good in the situation.

Getting up off of the unconscious athletic boy, Danny grimaced and said, "Sorry!" And soared back to the caterpillar.

In the meantime, the caterpillar, thinking it had finally rid itself of the 'gnat' that was bugging it, suddenly noticed the other students. It turned completely away from where it had sent the ghost boy and focused on attacking them. This time, the kids screamed and started to run away, confusing the creature in its attempts to make contact with one of the other 'gnats'.

Using this opportunity of the creature erratic and distracted behavior, Danny willed his wulf claws again, and clasping his hands firmly together, with the hope that his combined claws would now act as a giant arrow, he charged at the creature's back. In a moment, there was a loud explosion when his plan worked; and the gym was now covered with orange goop. But as Danny flung the goo off of himself, he saw what was left. A very tiny, yet beautiful, orange ghost butterfly smiled and giggled at him and immediately flapped out of existence.

Struck by its oddity compared to the first ghost-worm he encountered, Danny muttered, "Go figure!" Then he soared away, as the cheers from the students echoed in his ears.

Meanwhile, Dash had finally regained consciousness when he was assaulted this time by the cold orange goo. Groaning, he finally remembered what he was going to do before he was conked out, and headed toward Sam, Tucker and the dummy again.

Sam quickly saw Dash headed toward them and groaned in dread. When he had come as close as she dared, she pulled the dummy behind her, playing for more time, but gasped when she caused another balloon to fizzle loudly.

Thinking quickly she warned, "Stand back, Dash! Danny ate something that didn't agree with him!"

Dash, undaunted by her excuse, moved even closer and said, "I know! I gave it to him!"

Just when Dash was about to pull Sam away from the dummy; and Sam, though she resisted, knew that she had to give it up, she and Tucker were startled by the groan that came out of the dummy.

"Hey, you're not a dummy!" Tucker blurted out.

Ignoring him, Danny groaned again, feigning feeling sick. He raised one of his hands to his forehead and said, "Ohh, I still don't feel so good. But wasn't that Ghost Kid great just now, Sam?"

Sam, now totally relieved, smiled weakly and said, "He always is!"

Then getting angry, Danny glared at Dash and seethed, "So, you were the one who made me sick? If I were feeling any better, I'd ask Danny Phantom to slug you!"

"You wish, wimp!" Dash answered, then added, "Glad to know that you're obvious reaction to that moldy jalapeño pepper almost proved to me that you weren't the Ghost Kid. But now…" He suddenly reached for and grabbed the wig and sunglasses off of Danny.

"Hey! Those are rentals!" Danny Fenton protested.

Throwing the items violently back at him, Dash commented, "Ugh! Geek gear! Now everyone will know what I knew all along. Rumor or no rumor! You are no hero and you definitely aren't Danny Phantom! How dare you even pretend you were!"

He stomped away back to report to his friends; and Danny, Sam and Tucker sighed in collective relief. They knew that Danny's secret was safe once more!

Meanwhile, Mr. Lancer, completely oblivious to everything that had just happened, turned off the still oddly playing music and made his excited announcement over the intercom. "And now, students of Casper High, it's time for snacks, complements of…" And as he pulled back the curtain from the stage, he shouted in trembling excitement at the last bit of his announcement, "Ms. Fanny Dempton and her 'Pot Roast Joy'!"

A very unhappy Ms. Dempton, who had been waiting behind the curtain through the last part of the dance and Danny's fight, stood shaking with embarrassment and fury, as she and her food were now covered in orange goo. She loudly shrieked, "It doesn't go with orange sauce!"


	10. Chapter 10 Epilogue

**A/N: Boo-hoo, now it's the end!! (But y'all know I always complete my stories!) And now here's the Epilogue. Don't own nothin', ya'll!! Enjoy!**

Rumor Has It—Epilogue

The following Monday, Danny, Sam and Tucker were walking down the hallway. Anyone around them didn't look particularly interested in even glancing at the trio as they headed toward their lockers. It was obvious that all the usual buzz they had been used to was now gone.

At least, all the buzz about **them** was gone. As they approached the teachers' lounge, which was near their lockers, the three friends could clearly hear Mr. Lancer, who was still fuming and ranting to his fellow teachers about what had happened at the dance and how infuriated Fanny Dempton had been. The trio couldn't help but hear the bluster as they opened their lockers.

"Oh, the shame of it all! I will never be able to enjoy 'Pot Roast Joy' the same way again!" Mr. Lancer bemoaned, cradling his head with both of his hands.

"Well, I never had the opportunity, so I'm not missing anything," Mr. Falluca casually said, again solidifying the admiration of all the other teachers in the room for his inadvertent bravery.

"How can you say that, Frank?" Mr. Lancer gasped, throwing his hands up in shock. "That's like saying 'ambrosia' was not fit for the gods just because you never had partaken of it!"

Mr. Falluca blinked at him. He could not believe what his cohort had just said. But, still unimpressed, the math teacher replied, "It's just that under the situation as it was, Ms. Dempton did not behave like the 'goddess' you claim her to be. It wasn't the kids—or our—fault that her food was ruined. All that unnecessary hyperventilating of hers! My arm's still sore from fanning her! And she should have understood that getting 'nasty burgers' as an emergency back-up snack did not warrant the hysterical swooning that she did. I did not appreciate having to pick her large frame up off the floor!" The math teacher emphasized the point by placing both of his hands on the back of his lower back and stretching the kinks out.

"Well, you did have help, Frank!" Mr. Lancer reminded him, also unconsciously stretching the kinks out of his back. "Besides, I totally understand her reaction. How could you expect her to be pleased with having such underling food in her presence?"

This time Mr. Falluca glared at his colleague. Nothing would convince him that Mr. Lancer's idol deserved any kind of compliment at all! "I don't know. And quite frankly, I don't care!"

Mr. Lancer gasped; and just before he stomped out of the teacher's lounge, uttered, "Well, I never!"

He threw the door open, barely missing Tucker who, with Danny and Sam, had resumed their walk toward their next class after finishing closing their lockers. Tucker had jerked away from the door so violently that he lost his beret and skewed his glasses.

"Will you please watch out where you're going, people?!" the teacher boomed as he stormed past them.

"Whew! That was too close for comfort!" Tucker sighed in relief, fixing his glasses. He reached down and after grabbing his beret, put it back on his head.

"And speaking of 'too close for comfort'!" Danny said, also breathing with relief. "I'm glad that my secret is safe! And I'm a 'nobody' again…until I see Dash again, that is, then I'm a 'target nobody'!" He laughed.

"You know it!" Sam agreed, giggling. But then getting more serious, she added, "But are you sure you want it this way? Being an unknown, I mean."

He answered, "Yes. I thought it long and hard and I want my privacy and my extracurricular activities, too!"

"And now you have a cool new power!" Tucker beamed.

"Yeah, I guess I should be thankful to Dash for helping me learn to duplicate myself."

Tucker, surprised at his friend's remark, replied, "Are you kidding? He could have killed you with that thing!"

Sam piped in. "That's for sure!! That jerk didn't do you any favors. And he helped keep that rumor going!'

"Well, even though you're both right, everything did turn out OK in spite of all that. And actually, he help me 'prove' that Danny Phantom and I are two 'different' people. And guess what? I'm getting so good at replicating that I'm now able to duplicate into three of me; and now I only have to think of just my stomach hurting, not both my stomach and my head hurting anymore!!" Danny replied in excitement.

His friends chuckled.

Then Sam said in relief, "Well, I'm just so glad that we could stop that rumor!" And then raising her arm as if she were taking an oath, she added, "And just so you know: I'm swearing off those dumb magazines! I can't believe I believed all that!! They're as addicting and dumb as all rumors!"

Tucker piped in, "Yeah, me, too! And only dumb people like Dash and Paulina would believe such things! Rumors are so incredibly silly and crazy. It's like saying that…."

Just then, Paulina and Starr walked by the three friends, pretending that they are uninterested in what the trio was saying. But just as they were passing the friends, they only heard Tucker add, "…Dash picks his teeth with his clipped toenails!"

But, of course, Paulina and Starr heard that, and looking at each other with surprised delight, were just as eager to spread this new buzz.

THE END

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed this little dabble, and that you even had a good chuckle! And special thanks to: Angelus-alvus, DPCrazy, Nicktoons Squad, Pearl84, sciencefreak330, Majestic Moon, thunderstorm101, TexasDreamer01, contestshippininuyashagurl, crazyvi, ArmoredSoul, FlameFeatherPen, MoonRockBlink1772, Goldenfeather and Wishes for Wings. And in my sincere appreciation for your patience in waiting an extra week for the conclusion on RHI, I am posting the first chapter of my next sweet story called "Sleepover Nightmare" at the same time as this Epilogue. Don't want you to wait any more than you had to! Like RHI, I wrote SN before HOWE and I pushed them both aside so that I could post HOWE. And I still don't want to hurt their feelings any more!!! I think that "Sleepover Nightmare" is worth a look from y'all , even though it is a light, melt-in-your-mouth fluffy story. But I know it will be fun just the same!! Thank you so much again and hope to catch y'all later!! AND MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!! truephan**


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